Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software
Foundation's (FSF) monthly news digest and action update — being read
by you and 234,203 other activists.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
November FSF40 challenge: Participate in the FSF40 hackathon on November 21-23
FSF announces Librephone project
FSF turns forty with a groundbreaking new project and a new president
Windows 10 sunsetting doesn't mean the end for your PC
FSF confirms Ian Kelling as its new president
The FSFE defends interoperability from Apple at the EU’s highest court
PERA remains a serious threat to efforts against bad patents
Germany slams brakes on EU's Chat Control device-scanning snoopfest
October GNU Emacs news
Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
LibrePlanet featured resource: Group: FSF:Tech Team Volunteers
October GNU Spotlight with Amin Bandali featuring nine new GNU releases: GNUnet, Marst, and more!
Want to read this newsletter translated into another language? Scroll
to the end to read the Supporter in French or Spanish.
November FSF40 challenge: Participate in the FSF40 hackathon on November 21-23
Every month during our fortieth anniversary year, we're inviting free
software supporters everywhere to join us in celebrating #FSF40. For
our second-to-last FSF40 challenge, take part in the FSF40 hackathon
that will be held on November 21-23, 2025. You don't have to have
experience programming (but we certainly welcome that experience if
you do). Help develop any of the eight participating projects and
learn from others in the free software community. If you can't take
part in this #FSF40Challenge, fear not—we've got one more coming.
The FSF is tackling mobile phone freedom with its newest project,
Librephone. This project will not build a mobile phone operating
system from scratch. It is a long-term project to better understand
and reverse-engineer the nonfree blobs used by virtually all SoCs made
today, as well as lay further groundwork for the future of freedom in
mobile phones. You can stay informed by joining #librephone on the
Libera.Chat IRC server. All information about Librephone will be
posted on its homepage, so don't forget to bookmark it!
FSF turns forty with a groundbreaking new project and a new president
From October 4
The FSF's birthday began with a conversation between board members
Christina Haralanova, Gerald J. Sussman, Ian Kelling, and Richard M.
Stallman, who discussed the organization's mission and their vision
for its future. It was during this discussion that Ian Kelling was
presented as the new FSF president. The announcement of Kelling's
presidency wasn't the only major change shared at FSF40: FSF
executive director Zoë Kooyman introduced the organization's newest
project — Librephone. You can read more about the FSF40 anniversary
event in the article below.
Windows 10 sunsetting doesn't mean the end for your PC
From October 9
For those of you with computers running Windows 10, you may have
noticed a wide variety of issues when your computer attempted the
forced update to Windows 11 (if your hardware was even compatible).
This isn't the first time that Microsoft has worked to control users,
nor will it be the last. The end of Windows 10 support is the perfect
opportunity to stop this cycle in its tracks and switch to a
freedom-respecting GNU/Linux operating system (OS). There are quite a
few FSF-approved free GNU/Linux distributions that you can switch to,
many with helpful tutorials online. Give one of them a try if you're
not yet running a free OS — you always have the freedom to return to
an OS that seeks to take from you.
The FSF has a new president! Ian Kelling, board member since 2021 and
FSF senior systems administrator since 2017, brings a wealth of
experience to the position. As noted by the board, "... He has the
technical knowledge to speak with authority on most free software
issues, and he has a strong connection with the community as an active
speaker and blogger." Learn more about the FSF's new president in the
article below and keep an eye out for an exclusive interview with
Kelling in the upcoming Bulletin.
The FSFE defends interoperability from Apple at the EU’s highest court
From October 21 by Free Software Foundation Europe
In mid-October, the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE)
participated as an intervenor in the landmark Apple v. European
Commission (T-1080/23) hearing before the Court of Justice of the
European Union. The case could shape the future of Europe’s digital
freedom by determining whether the Digital Markets Act (DMA) truly
delivers on its promise of interoperability and user choice. The DMA
imposes several freedom-granting obligations on corporations like
Apple, including allowing the right to install and uninstall software
in devices, prohibition of non-removable pre-installed software, and
enabling third-party app stores and access rights via interoperability
with software and hardware functions. A decision hasn't been announced
yet, so keep an eye out for updates on this important case.
PERA remains a serious threat to efforts against bad patents
From October 9 by Katharine Trendacosta
The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA), which is being
considered by the US Senate Judiciary Committee, would reverse over a
decade of progress in fighting patent trolls, effectively making
obtaining software patents even easier than before. PERA, should it
pass, would overturn long-standing court decisions that have helped
keep some of the most problematic patents in check, and instead
introduce codified criteria that would enable broad software patents
— allowing anyone to assert ownership over abstract software ideas.
The current protections in US patent law are essential for our work to
end software patents, and without them, software freedom is at greater
risk. If you reside in the US, please call, email, or write to your
Senator.
Germany slams brakes on EU's Chat Control device-scanning snoopfest
From October 8 by Connor Jones
Germany has committed to opposing the EU's controversial "Chat
Control" regulations following huge pressure from multiple activists
and major organizations. Under the guise of protecting children, Chat
Control proposals would require mass scanning of every message, photo,
and video on a person's device (including encrypted materials),
assessing via a government-mandated database or machine learning model
to determine whether the content is permissible or not. In other
words, should Chat Control regulations pass, it would effectively make
available all communications from individual activists to government
officials. If you are an EU citizen, contact your Member of the
European Parliament (MEP) with your concerns about this dangerous
proposal.
Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to
discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth
of useful information, from basic category and descriptions to version
control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing. The Free Software
Directory has been a great resource to software users over the past
decade, but it needs your help staying up-to-date with new and
exciting free software projects.
To help, join our weekly IRC meetings on Fridays. Meetings take place
in the #fsf channel on Libera.Chat and usually include a handful of
regulars as well as newcomers. Libera.Chat is accessible from any IRC
client—Everyone's welcome!
LibrePlanet featured resource: Group: FSF:Tech Team Volunteers
Every month on the LibrePlanet, we highlight one resource that is
interesting and useful—often one that could use your help. For this
month, we are highlighting Group: FSF:Tech Team Volunteers. The FSF
tech team wants your help! The FSF Tech Team consists of two full-time
staff members (plus an intern or two sometimes). Along with teams of
volunteers (such as the Savannah hackers and the GNU webmasters), we
maintain and improve the infrastructure and services that power the
free software movement. Starting in 2023, our small team began steps
to increase the number and types of tasks that we can accept volunteer
help with. Whether you have a few hours a week or a few hours every
couple of months, please read on and consider joining in! You are
invited to help update, adopt, spread, and improve this important
resource.
To download: nearly all GNU software is available most reliably from
https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/. Optionally, you may find faster download
speeds at a mirror located geographically closer to you by choosing
from the list of mirrors published at
https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html, or you may use
https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/ to be automatically redirected to a
(hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.
We appreciate everyone who donates to the Free Software Foundation,
and we'd like to give special recognition to the folks who have
donated $500 or more in the last month.
Assigning your copyright to the Free Software Foundation helps us
defend the GNU GPL and keep software free. The following individuals
have assigned their copyright to the FSF (and allowed public
appreciation) in the past month:
Alvin Hsu (GNU Emacs)
Mathieu Borderé (GNU Coreutils)
Rob Savoye (Librephone)
Roger Bowler (GNUCOBOL)
Vivien Kraus (glibc, GNUlib)
Want to see your name on this list? Contribute to GNU and assign your
copyright to the FSF.
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Take action with the FSF!
Contributions from thousands of individual associate members enable
the FSF's work. You can contribute by joining at
https://my.fsf.org/join. If you're already a member, you can help
refer new members by adding a line with your member number to your
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for translators for the Free Software Supporter. Please send an
email to [email protected] with your interest and a list of your
experience and qualifications.
